Hammermills are often used to reduce the size of solid material. Materials often used in mills include coal, asphalt, cement, limestone, chemical fertilizer, barks, rocks, mineral, and food products. The materials are often feed into an inlet where the material falls into a milling chamber. The milling chamber typically comprises a plurality of impact hammers and may comprise a screen. The impact hammers are typically fastened at a proximal end to a rotary assembly; they are either rigidly fixed to the rotor assembly or the impact hammers may be free-swinging. As the material is feed into the chamber, the rotary assembly rotates bringing the impact hammers into contact with the material. The size reduction on each impact depends on the differential speed between the hammers and material, size of the material, and hardness of the material. If a screen is present, the screen may allow only the desired material particle size to pass to the outside of the chamber to an outlet where the particles can be collected or funneled to another machine where the material may be further processed.
Due to the impact and/or abrasive nature of the material, the impact hammers may wear requiring continual maintenance and down time of the hammermill.
In the prior art, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,405,950; 5,938,131; 4,638,747; and U.S. Patent Publication 2004/0129808, all of which are herein incorporated by reference for all that they contain, disclose hammermills which may be compatible with the present invention.